Exercise

I'm in horrible shape. I've always been in horrible shape. I'm not complaining, it's my own fault after all. My main priority in life has always been schoolwork. I've just been waiting for the right kick-in-the-butt to get into a workout regimen that I can maintain. It turns out that kick-in-the-butt is heat.

As I found out at a baseball game with Brandon's family before we left Michigan, people who are out of shape have a harder time dealing with heat stress. Brandon's very-fit parents and sister were fine, but I had to keep going back into the stands for water and shade. I was seriously concerned I might pass out - and mind you, all we were doing was sitting quietly, watching the game.

In Texas, below 90-degrees counts as a break from the heat. Also, the school I'm attending has a very nice rec center, which is free for students. Doubly-also, my new study partner is a workout MACHINE. She does an hour of cardio per day, plus an 8-minute-abs video on youtube, and extra classes at the rec center (whatever seems fun that week). So, she started dragging me along. And since she has to stay on the machine for an hour, and she's my ride back, I have no reason to stop at half-an-hour as I had planned.

Suddenly I've gone from couch potato to working out 4 times per week, which I never in a million years thought I would do. I'm hoping to continue the trend. 

So, along with grad school, cooking, blogging and trying new restaurants, I have yet another project: exercise. I'm hoping this is one I can keep up, like, lifelong.

C'est La Vie - and Also Cha-Cha's

Bad News,

Thursday afternoon we tried to stop into Cafe Nyoshii for late lunch/early evening food. [See Previous post]

Didn't work.

Makes sense now why their telephone number seemed to not work when I rang them on Sunday.

- Anyway,
After some debate we just shot for some random new spot and ended up hitting a snazzy mexican food joint off Wurzbach [cha-chas.com] instead. Fajita plate, beer, flautas & an order of I-dont-recall-what-amanda's-new-colleague-got.

fajita's are my go-to dish.

Not seeing the regular dinner item, I'd initially tried to negotiate a half order of their 20usd fajita's by the pound.

The waitress, initially not understanding I was referencing the by-the-lb item, informed me instead that the plate was so small it wouldn't be worth splitting. I acquiesced. Guacamole & cuts of beef were good but the waitress unfortunately was right re: size of plate.

I am apparently spoiled by mexican joints thirteen hundred miles away that will give you a pile of food for half the expense. Joint was snazzy, though, and it's cool to have a nearby standby eatery that doesnt suck.

Amanda & Christine experienced no such similar crises as mine. 

May be worth coming back for a lunch special or Food Emergency, but I'll still be keeping an eye out for 'the fajita-spot. Some research may be in order, though i think Good barbecue comes first on the eatery-exploring list.

Texas Heat

Everyone always asks how we're adjusting to Texas life. Honestly, it's not that different from Michigan. Yes, it's hot out. But we see 100-degree weather in Michigan once in a while, it's just not usually every day. I'm sure it'll be much weirder in winter, when there's no snow. Frankly, that'll be sad for me. I love winter.

We did have one hilarious little Texas adventure: I was cleaning up in the kitchen, and a tiny lizard - no bigger than my thumbnail - fell onto the counter, then into the dishwasher. I shouted for Brandon, we (giggling the whole while) cornered it in the dishwasher, caught it, and put it outside. I've never seen a lizard in a residential area before in my life. But then, I'm sure Texans don't see deer walk through their backyards very often, either.

So, if you want to know how we're adjusting to the heat, I'll tell you. Here is a list of heat-survival supplies that I have on hand:

-A canteen
-An elongated ice cube tray, so ice will fit in the canteen
-Three different kinds of sunscreen, soon to be more plus facial moisturizer with SPF
-An umbrella
-Hats
-A collection of handkerchiefs, for wiping sweat off my face

I don't ever carry all of these things at once. I'll grab some combination on my way out the door. Brandon has to wear sunscreen and a hat every day because he burns so easily, but I can sometimes get away with just the umbrella. I also generally wear lower SPF sunscreen than he does.

The best perk about crazy-hot Texas weather: every apartment complex has a pool. In Michigan, a pool is a luxurious thing, so Brandon and I have gone swimming almost every other day. I'm sure that will change once I'm drowning in homework, but for now we're loving it. ^_^

Margaritas

My favorite drink is a vodka martini, dry and dirty. But it's not exactly a summer drink. Most people drink margaritas in the summer. Also, especially because San Antonio is a mainly Mexican city (culturally, I mean) it's a popular drink here. So, Brandon and I decided to embrace this.

Our apartment complex, like most complexes around here, has a pool and a couple barbecues. Food is allowed near the pool, but glass containers aren't. Brandon's first immediate concern upon hearing this rule: We had to buy plastic margarita glasses.

So, we hit up the goodwill.

If we were smart bloggers who plan ahead, we might have gotten a photo of an actual margarita.

We got 4 margarita glasses, a package of martini glasses and a package of wine glasses (all plastic, of course). The green glass is for our toothbrushes, the white bowl with blue handles is to go by the door, for our keys and spare change. The white dish is a soap dish for the bathroom.

We had Christine - a girl from my program at school - over for barbecue and margaritas by the pool yesterday, and we all had a fun, relaxing time. We had never made margaritas before, but they turned out nicely (frankly, I think it's a hard drink to mess up). And I have to say, drinking by the pool is just as luxurious as I had imagined it to be. ^_^

Orientation

I had orientation at school this week. I'll spare you the boring details and just say this: I'm very excited about my program. There seems to be a lot of opportunity to explore various tracks within my field.

The program I'm entering is a Master's program in Cell and Systems Biology. There are various tracks within that department, and as a Masters student, I get a unique opportunity to sort of get a taste of each. Some of the categories include: genetics, cancer biology, cellular and molecular biology, biology of aging and a few more that escape memory at the moment (memory was not one, although that would be funny.)

The first course in the program is a whopping 8-credit class that gives an overview of each of these subjects and prepares students for rigorous labwork. While taking this course, we're expected to do a couple lab rotations and start the process of deciding which lab we want to work in. Given that we only have 2 years to complete and present our thesis, I estimate that we should really have our mentor picked by the end of the first semester, although I don't know if that's typical.

Anyway, point is, I'm pumped. I've already seen a few impressive labs, so I feel confident that my rotations will be exciting and educational. I'm not nervous about the coursework at all, mostly I just want to have my mentor picked soon, so I can start digging in and working on my thesis. My only fear is that I will have to stay on a third year, when I really didn't mean to spend that much time in Texas.

Is it nerdy that I can't wait to get my textbooks, so I can start reading?

Cafe Nyo Shii

[See follow-up Post]

Brandon and I just found this restaurant, it's right next to our apartment complex.

http://nyoshii.com/aboutus.htm

I couldn't possibly be more excited. We'll have to check them out, and let you guys know how it goes.

The Alamo

So, this one's pretty straight forward. When you move here, you just kind of feel obligated to go to The Alamo. Brandon kept remarking on how centrally located it is in downtown, I had to keep reminding him that that's backwards: The Alamo isn't at the center of San Antonio, San Antonio was built around The Alamo. San Antonio - and Texas, for that matter - exists because of The Alamo. 

 Brandon contemplates the battle of The Alamo

I went once before, when I flew down here with my dad to look at apartments. But we only did a brief walkthrough. This time, Brandon and I decided to really get the whole Alamo experience. We read the plaques, looked at the exhibits, walked around the courtyard, admired the trees (which are really part of the museum experience as well - a lot of them were donated to commemorate the event.)

Like most things in San Antonio, it's not a huge activity that will eat up your whole day, but it's definitely worth checking out. The story of The Alamo is nearing 200 years old. A lot of people since then have wanted to commemorate the event, so there are a lot of shrines, plaques and monuments around the courtyard, many of which have their own story.

For instance, there is a gigantic oak tree in one of the small courtyards. It was moved there over 100 years ago by a man who started the first tree transplantation company in Texas. The story cracks me up, because no one believed that adult trees could be transplanted, it was a new technology at the time. And the guy who introduced it decided to donate a tree to The Alamo. It's a really cool tree, its branches are over 50 feet long, they're all windey and need to be held up by poles and wire. Brandon took a few pictures.

Now that we've done the one truly quintessential San Antonio tourist activity, we're ready to start checking out the towny activities; the hole-in-the-wall restaurants no one knows about, the out-of-the-way super-cheap movie theaters, the locally owned thrift stores and bakeries.....

It should be a fun two years.

Introduction

My name is Amanda, and my boyfriend Brandon is in the other room, messing with his phone. You'll find he does that a lot.

Brandon and I recently moved from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to San Antonio, Texas. We're here because I am about to start graduate school.

This blog will likely serve a few purposes, it's part scrapbook, part journal, part restaurant review and also one method by which we will stay in touch with our families back in Michigan. We will likely write about a number of subjects:

-San Antonio life. We'll hit up some of the tourist spots around here, as well as check out some hole-in-the-wall restaurants.
-Cooking, gardening, and entertainment. We have a few hobbies, but food is probably the biggest.
-Culture shock. We used to live by the Canadian border. Now we live by the Mexican border. We've got a lot to learn.
-Grad school. This is a big step for me, so I may share about it from time to time.
-Work. By the same token, Brandon will likely want to share about his work life.
-Science and technology. Brandon and I read a lot of articles, and we often like to share our thoughts on whatever we've been reading lately. 

Thanks for swinging by and checking us out!